These knotted strap sandals I made for my teenage daughter. Every time I make her a pair of sandals she gets out fabric scraps and cardboard and builds her own sandals that she wears proudly around the house.
It’s so fascinating to see how our making stuff inspires children to do so too and one day without ever having been taught formally they are able to just create whatever it was that they watched us doing. I’ve observed this many times.
I made the sandals with six leather straps, of which I knotted together 2 straps to make three pairs of straps. I also threaded a leather braid through the straps.
How to make the knotted straps
To show the knotting technique I used two different colours, I made the sandals with two same coloured straps.
- Loosely tie the right (red) strap over the left strap as shown.
2. Loosely pass the left strap (yellow) behind and then forward over the right strap, inserting it through the loop made in step 1.
3. Hold the knot between your fingers and pull first the left strap and then the right strap to tighten it.
For more sandal making inspiration see my posts on woven sandals and on tooled one-strap sandals.
For how to hand-craft the most beautiful sandals you can imagine see my eBook Making Unique Leather Sandals. A practical guide with step-by-step projects.
